A Most Unlikely Duke

In Barnes’s first Diamonds in the Rough Regency, a newly minted duke tries to put his rough past behind him and falls for his beautiful new neighbor. Raphe Matthews is living in the poor neighborhood of St. Giles and barely making ends meet while trying to support his two younger sisters. Then he learns that he is the new Duke of Huntley. After moving to the ducal residence with his sisters, Raphe meets Lady Gabriella Radcliffe, an aristocrat who at first seems to snub him. But when Gabriella agrees to help his sisters assimilate into their new roles as sisters of a duke, he sees a different side of her, and learns she has not always been accepted as a member of her own class. The magnetism between Raphe and Gabriella is intense and believable as Raphe attempts to win over Gabriella’s family and Gabriella dodges proposals from the Earl of Fielding. The romantic angst propels the novel swiftly forward. (June)